A blog about EKU's best video gamers.

Month: April 2017

Let’s be honest: not all forms of media can translate easily into other forms. If we’re looking at video games, there have been some colossal swing-and-misses with video game adaptations, with arguably the biggest bomb being ET for the Atari 2600, which almost brought an end to the video game market.

It’s not easy to turn a movie or TV show into a game, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying. Occasionally, there is a game that breaks that mold, but they often require the right angle; one that most don’t think of. With that said, here’s my Top 5 games that would be a challenge to make into a video game.

5. NCIS/CSI/Law & Order

This one makes it pretty low on the list since it’s actually a simple solution to make a good game out of a crime drama. There IS a game of NCIS out there, but it’s a painfully simple “place this, move that” puzzle game that got redundant and boring super quick.

My solution: Why not take these shows and give them the LA Noire treatment? LA Noire has the formula where in order to solve cases, you have to actively search for clues and pay attention to testimony to put A and B together to solve crimes. If this kind of problem solving gameplay was incorporated into these TV shows, plus having original voice actors provide the lines, I have little doubt these games would do well.

4. Superman

Lord knows that The Man of Steel has a shoddy track record with video games. With a few on systems such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64, and the Atari 2600, Superman’s greatest blunder (aside from The Quest for Peace) came with the Nintendo 64 game that had mediocre graphics and extremely slippery control.

My solution: It’s a long shot, but how about taking Superman and giving him the Arkham treatment? The Batman Arkham series took The Dark Knight and put him in a open world to explore and fight bad guys. Add in a great story and a plethora of villains such as The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin, and more, and you have a great franchise that showed that Batman could have AWESOME video games.

That being said, it’s a long shot considering that Batman’s legacy is more interesting than Superman’s, not to mention that Batman CAN actually lose, whereas Superman is meant to be unbeatable. Still, it would be worth at least a shot.

3. Nightmare on Elm Street

What’s interesting about this is that there already IS a game based on the hit horror film. Released on the NES, the game was a sidescroller that had characters looking for the bones of Freddy Krueger to bury them. Ironically, the game based on the first movie follows more closely to the third one. While playable at the very least, the game didn’t have anything to brag about, and since then, the only other time we’ve seen Freddy in a video game was a cameo in Mortal Kombat 9.

My solution: With the success of Dead by Daylight, and the concept of the upcoming Friday the 13th video game, I think that Nightmare could thrive in the same manner. Or, how about modeling it after Until Dawn? Having multiple victims trying to escape the wrath of Freddy, leading to multiple endings, and no two playthroughs being the same? That’s a killer idea.

Tell ’em Freddy sent ya.

2. Breaking Bad

I’ll be honest, I’ve only started watching this show recently, but I will admit that it has an interesting concept: Walter White is a chemistry teacher that is diagnosed with lung cancer, and resorts to cooking meth to keep his family afloat. It has brilliant writing, and Bryan Cranston captures the transformation of Walter from mild-mannered chemist to the badass Scarface-esqe meth cook known as Heisenberg PERFECTLY. But how to make a game of that? A shooter wouldn’t be that interesting, and a cooking game is definitely out of the question.

My solution: There’s one gameplay style that would do Breaking Bad justice: TellTale. The TellTale The Walking Dead series of games where the players choices molds how the story unfolds is a resounding success. TellTale has even started adapting other forms of media to this gameplay style, such as Borderlands and even Minecraft. A TellTale game could follow a new protege under Heisenberg, or maybe even follow a different character altogether, much like how their Walking Dead series has original characters.

It’s time to cook.

1. One Punch Man

Now this one is a challenge. The popular manga/anime follows Saitama, who only wants to be a hero for fun. The only problem is that he trained so hard for so long, that anything he fights, no matter how big, strong, tough, or fast, he can defeat it in only one punch. As such, he’s grown bored.

The whole thing is a parody of Shonen manga/anime, but instead of the main character wanting to be the best, the main character already IS the best, so now it’s just a matter of him finding something else to do. But if Saitama can defeat anything in one punch, how could you make a game of One Punch Man?

My solution: This one is arguably the toughest sell, but if One Punch Man were to make it as a video game, the only genre I can think of that would do it justice is Dynasty Warriors. Other animes such as One Piece and Gundam have adapted this style of gameplay, where you’re a one man army blasting through thousands of enemies. Since Saitama IS essentially a one man army, this could give them a chance to REALLY amp up the quantity of mooks for Saitama to face.

There are many kinds of self imposed challenges in the Pokémon games, and the granddaddy of them all is the Nuzlocke run.

Started by a college student during a cool down period in between classes, the web comic artist known as ‘Nuzlocke’ started a new file in his copy of Pokémon Ruby. However, to make it more challenging, he imposed two rules on himself: He could only catch the first Pokémon he saw in a new area, and if a Pokémon faints, it’s considered dead and must be released. Nuzlocke then turned the adventure into a web comic and posted them on Tumblr, where they were very well received and gave Nuzlocke his namesake based on a Nuzleaf modeled after John Locke from the hit show LOST.

I believe this is all happening for a reason.

While the concept of death is implied in the Pokémon universe with the likes of the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town, which is a giant gravesite, the Nuzlocke challenge brings that concept to the forefront. Since you’re not allowed to use items such as Revives to bring your Pokémon back, you have to think strategically, especially since you’re only allowed to get the first Pokémon you see in a new area.

This is a surprisingly hard challenge, and the payoff isn’t all that great; it’s mostly bragging rights. Still, that hasn’t stopped people from making comics out of their own challenges, such as the aforementioned Nuzlocke and the DeviantArt user Epifex.

I’ve even attempted a few Nuzlocke challenges in FireRed, SoulSilver, and Platinum, albeit unsuccessfully. The closest I came was the battle with Lance in FireRed, where his Aerodactyl landed a string of critical hits on my team. Even though I’ve never won the challenge, I found the experiences to be quite memorable.

Think you have what it takes to face the Nuzlocke Challenge? If so,be prepared for the heartache and intense moments.

When one puts themselves into the public eye, they more than likely open themselves to have everything they say scrutinized by people with WAY too much time on their hands.

I have several questions.

Jon Jafari, better known as Jontron, is a video game reviewer, and creator of the video gaming website NormalBoots.com. Aside from posting video game reviews, he’s also done work for Did You Know Gaming, as well as being one of the co-founders of the popular let’s play channel, Game Grumps.

Jontron is an unapologetic fan of the Banjo Kazooie franchise, Nuts and Bolts not withstanding. As such, he had a role in the upcoming indie game Yooka-Laylee. Unfortunately, his role in the game has been cut due to remarks he made on Twitter regarding immigration.

Wow, how scandalous, Steve King doesn’t want his country invaded by people who have contempt for his culture and people! NAZI!!!

As a result of his anti-immigration views, Jontron has lost approximately 10K Youtube subscribers, and Playtonic Games have removed Jafari’s voice work from their upcoming game Yooka-Laylee.

Now for the rant.

Once again, this comes down to the key word: opinions. You make of it what you will. However, this is a HUGE issue for the sake of democracy and differing opinions.

What’s the point of having a different or unpopular opinion if someone is absolutely crucified for having one? Losing subscribers is one thing, but removing someone’s voice work from your video game just because people don’t agree with someone’s political views?

That’s not justice, you’re just feeding the flames to allow people to bitch about anything they want for the sake of bitching. This behavior needs to be stomped down, and these people need to be told to get over it.